Blog Visitors' CommentsCondo Search's comment..
I just drop by to say "thank you" for your excellent blog, and safe me from committing at a high price and wrong time buying. It helps me a small property hunter(with hard earning money) and others(i believed)a better inform. Thank you again...

Young Buyer's comment...
I've just graduated and started working, and I hope to own a residential property in Singapore after 2010/2011. So I'm starting to do my Singapore property research now. I have never come across such a comprehensive coverage on the Singapore property market, and I thank you for enlightening readers like me who want to know more :) Keep up the good work!

Young Expat's comment...
i am an overseas expat who moved to singapore a year ago and started looking out recently for property to buy as rentals started to rise all around me..i was advised to follow ur forum and since then have been impressed with all the wonderful tips exchanged in this portal..thanks to all the contributors.(Smart Buyer, the blogger here, would like to say many thanks to all these unsung heroes too)

Red's comment...
I think your reply give a rational explanation on my question. You are indeed a smart buyer and very knowledgeable.

Kate's comment...
This is a great blog filled with latest news, historical insights and good opinions that gives direction. Not the sitting on the fence type of 'pc' opinions. I love this blog. Please keep up the good work! You are really doing Singaporeans a big favour! Thank you!! I will keep on reading.

Phantasia's comment ...
Hi smart buyer,
Just wanna say thanks for your response to my query earlier in another post. And also for the very informative blog! Have learnt much from your postings! Thanks for sharing.

Smart Buyers, 10 reasons to waitFear that property price will go up forever? Here are 10 reasons to consider before you make that big commitment.......Posted by Smart Buyer(This post contains the 10 reasons that Smart Buyer first wrote for himself in mid 2007 when the property market was in a runaway euphoria, which he subsequently posted on this blog for all property buyers to consider. The arguments are supported by official data and illustrated with property supply and property price index graphs.)

Bad investments are made in Good Times
Looking at the subprime problem, it is definitely a bad news that will take time to filter down. The falling US$ is another problem that will hit the US economy. China and HK property and share mkt are 2 big bubbles.. Beware !!...Posted by km(This post contains km's first-person account of the 1998's property market crash and all the troubles that came with it - soaring mortgage rate, vacant properties with no available tenants, banks pressing for top-ups as property valuation dropped, ... his story has a happy ending of course. He'd share with you openly the lessons learnt.)

Solvency Worries STALK CREDIT-DERIVATIVES MARKET. They are now talking of SOLVENCY, not just LIQUIDITY issue .......it's really quite serious now....Posted by AnonymousHaving a house which has a big loan is a liability at this global trouble time.So far the market is still moving down slow due to the reason that many of the countries are injecting funds to buy part of the share of the banking market. The negative news continues to rise. The money is better leave in CPF and local banks to grow interests....Posted by Anonymous

During the 1995 -1998 period, the same scenerio arise..Many people cant get the HDB flat. There was the ballot system and it is just like "ti-kam", 1 out of 8 can get to buy. Due to this flocked system, many people, including those who are not so keen buyer also join the Q, paying $10 as a ballot fee, when they get balloted, then ......Posted by Anonymous

This market is definitely driven by greed and liquidity.I have never seen anything like it in my lifetime. Property prices goes up as fast a the stock market. This market is definitely driven by greed and liquidity in the asian market. What goes up must come down!...Posted by rob-502

Your Property Investment Decides Your Financial SuccessYour Property Investment may be the sole determinant of your financial success in life. One wrong move,......Posted by Smart Buyer (This post contains Smart Buyer's first-person account of the 1990's boom and bust, and how investment opportunities presented themselves in the market crash of 1998 and 2006.)

don't forget most new jobs created are in the construction industry .. can our retrenched bankers or even factory operators now go and take over blanga's constructional workers' positions?

be realistic with your pay and job... well said ... but how are you going to pay for the million dollar condo you committed earlier this year?

Another Bear said:Moral of the story do not over commit to those overpriced condo..

Yet Another Bear said:AIA axes 20 ... just slightly more than a week ago, Merrill Lynch also axed about 20 persons. i heard that very recently, standard charted also axed some (anyone care to confirm??)...

while I am not surprised that banks are cutting fat, these few... maybe 50 people are the "higher income" whose salaries and bonuses combined can easily be used to pay for 1000 workers in the construction and services industry... see the comparison???

so we create 200,000 jobs. Yeah, these are majority the low paying ones. But at the top line, our best paying industry (i.e. banks) are retrenching, most of it on the quiet and not so "visibly" like right now. This looks to me like incomes are going to shrink. The people in the banking & finance industry that were laid off... they were also the very same people that had the money in the first place to buy the condominiums. Many of them did indeed buy during the boom and they aren't necessarily going to be able to get a job with similar pay... let alone better pay to finance their earlier purchases. In fact, the higher up you are, when you are axed, the more difficult it is to find an equivalent job.

Guess what... this is going to be a vicious cycle. When their jobs are unstable, even the ones with loads of cash in the bank will think thrice about buying expensive properties.

6
comments:

Anonymous
said...

Bear's comments that property prices will come down. It will not come down much and will at worst hold on or fall less than 10%. The powerful developers can always count on the Government support, eg recently the Government cut down significantly on the supply of the sale of lands . This gives more confidence to the developers not to cut price and hold on because they the financial means to hoard land for years. Next, the Government may reinstate defer payment for purchase of properties or offer attractive schemes to woo properties buyers to incur debts and buy overprices private properties. Such government measures are calculated to benefit the powerful developers who had reaped significant profits all these few years riding on IRs, F1, YOG, FT, higher populations. The powerful or listed developers will always be richer and private properties will always be overpriced. We are in a unique situation in Singapore.

"The powerful developers can always count on the Government support, eg recently the Government cut down significantly on the supply of the sale of lands." - Anonymous

I assume that anonymous is referring to article cited in http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporebusinessnews/view/386856/1/.html

I take issue with anonymous' claim that the Government is unfairly on the side of the "powerful developers" and that "The powerful or listed developers will always be richer and private properties will always be overpriced."

These statements slander the integrity of the Singapore gahmen and are not backed by facts.

I suspect that the government is simply responding to global financial circumstances and not some evil back room poly to boost cooperate profits.

Credit Suisse says that in 1998 and 2001, the larger developers suffered respective stock price falls of 66-79 per cent and 31-50 per cent.

In the article http://luxuryasiahome.wordpress.com/2008/10/02/write-downs-could-see-property-stocks-slip-further/"CapitaLand and Keppel Land wrote down between $900 million and $2.1 billion in 1998, and between $700 million and $900 million in 2001."

We clearly see that the Gahmen had not interfered in the property prices but allowed market forces to work things out.

Furthermore, the gahmen's mandate is not to enable all Singaporeans to afford private property. About 90% of Singapore's population are housed in HDBs which by and large are affordable.

While the pinnacle @ duxton and city view @ boon keng are priced over $500k, the 3rd quarter median resale price of a 4br flat island wide is $313,000k. After a $30k gahmen grant, the couple is faced with about $1300/mo payment over 30 years. This is extremely affordable as incomes for couples are usually over $4000 + (see link below)

http://www.salary.sg/2007/median-income-by-age-group/

Private property prices are comparable to any major cities and subject to market forces.

Anonymous's comments are unfairly biased against the gahmen without any evidences. I have a low opinion of users who post irresponsible comments online behind the cloak of anonymity.

Responsibility of speech should go hand in hand with freedom of speech. Otherwise you risk idiotic issues like the South Korean Mad Cow Disease Gene. http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=b30403ce06420dd8a8c12e9e85e0abe1

Smartbuyer, sorry if this topic has some what detracted from real estate, but I am sure you support people backing up their claims (e.g. buy now sure make $) with some facts and sound reasoning.

Hi Danny and Smartbuyer, when I started looking out for flats about 2 years ago, when I just graduated, the price of a new 4 room flat was about $200k+. Now the prices have soared to about $300k+ for a new 4 room pungool HDB. Why the dramatic price increase?

It gives us an impression that HDB is trying to make a HUGE profit from the citizens rather than providing AFFORDABLE housing. Are there some 'invisible market forces' out there that can cause the gahman to increase the price of HDB by a cool 50%?

Post a Comment

Dear visitors:Your comments are most welcome!

The blogger here has been affectionately named by close allies as "Smart Buyer" but really, he's not smart. Smart Buyer just believes that being prudent is smart. That's the essence of the message of this blog and Smart Buyer hopes it'll benefit other property buyers.